Final Word from Tuesday, April 6, 2010
This Final Word was written on an iPad. Well, sort of. Neither of the Adobe programs we use is available on the new tablet computer from Apple, so we had to copy the text from the iPad to a real computer for the final layout. The lack of support for InDesign and Acrobat is no surprise, but the absence of native support for Adobe's PDF files is, in our view, one of the biggest drawbacks for business users of the iPad. The idea of taking a tablet computer instead of a pile of papers into a meeting is very attractive, but Apple has intentionally crippled its iTunes program so the PDF files it contains can't be transferred to the iPad without third-party software. Apple takes 30% of the price of the necessary software. Buying the right PDF reader isn't expensive, but it's a huge hassle. If the iPad fails among business users, it will likely be because Apple's top priority is profit and not customer satisfaction.[Czech Republic]
Glossary of difficult words
iPad - a new tablet computer from Apple (it is not yet available in the Czech Republic; we bought it in the U.S. before hopping on a plane to Prague over the weekend);
drawback - a feature that renders something less acceptable; a disadvantage or problem;
to cripple - (in this sense) to disable a function that could easily be provided;
third-party - a person or group besides the two primarily involved (in this case, besides Apple and the user);
hassle - an irritating inconvenience.